I have in this study examined, through qualitative interviews, how adults with foreign background that are pupils in adult education in Sweden, understand the concepts democracy and dictatorship. Their expressed Understandings have been compared with their former life experiences as well as with the aim of the social studies to create a qualitative understanding of essential social concepts. My starting point is theories about the adult in leaning processes. It has been assumed that the adult interprets the world much through former life experiences. I have also relied on the idea that having a qualitative, more scientific, understanding of essential subjects is important for the adult as a member of society and participator in the on-going political debate.

This essay revolves around two questions: what is the nature of politics, and what kind of political order ensures a high rate of citizen participation? By using Cantal Mouffes theory on the political this essay shows how different Understandings of the nature of politics can lead to diverging views on what forms democracy should take. Two such Understandings are identified; one that sees the nature of politics as characterized by conflict and power, one that sees it as a space for cooperation in search for the common good. I trace these different ideas about the political in the parliamentary debate concerning Swedish constitutional reform. I conclude that the left-of-centre parties hold a view of the political closer to the conflict-perspective, while the green party together with the liberals/conservatives lean closer to the opposite view..

I institutionella samtal såsom närståendesamtal mellan en logoped, en närstående till en person med afasi och personen med afasi råder en asymmetri gällande maktförhållandet. Asymmetrin som uppstår i det institutionella samtalet kan innebära att samtalsdeltagaren med minst makt upplever ansiktshot. I samtal ses förståelse som en dynamisk process och när förståelsen innebär ett problem i konversationen störs den pågående aktiviteten. Mottagaren kan lösa problemet som uppstått genom att ge talaren en candidate understanding. Hur kommunikativa strategier används i närståendesamtal är ett relativt obeforskat område och ett viktigt område då närståendesamtal är en vanligt förekommande för logopeder.

This essay is a discourse and a feminist theoretical analysis that focuses on the alternative discourse that we consider Feminist Initiative to be constitutive of. Our theoretical stance, with base in Laclau and Mouffes discourse theory, builds on the notion that reality is characterised by conflicts between different competing discursive formations and that the social is an endless struggle over the preferential right of interpretation of meaning. More specifically, the essay focuses on the discursive struggle over the meaning of the term politics. It is our understanding that the dominant perception of politics necessarily excludes other Understandings, which can according to Eduards, be explained as a consequence of a patriarchal distribution of power that renders the subordination of certain Understandings of politics accordingly. Feminist Initiative, as an alternative discourse, can therefore be perceived as a threat to the dominating discourse of politics, which in order to maintain its preferential right of interpretation seek to illegitimatise and depoliticise the politics that the alternative discourse represents.

Gender equality is a political issue that has gained a lot of support in the last decades. Researchers have however pointed out that gender equality has a wide variety of Understandings.SKL (Sveriges kommuner och landsting) is an organization that looks after the interests of local authorities and county councils in Sweden. SKL has by the government been granted 145 million Swedish crowns to support gender mainstreaming at a local level. During a period of three years, 2008-2010, funding has been given to 89 projects for this purpose.The aim of this study is to examine what meanings are given to the term ?gender equality? in these projects.

The wild boar population grows rapidly in number in Sweden, and it has been predicted that the annual number of shot wild boar will soon exceed the cull of moose. According to estimates, the Swedish population encompassed some 150 000 individuals in 2010. The mean annual harvest has increased by 30% since 1990, indicating that the wild boar is a species we must learn to manage sustainably. A successful management of the boars aims for a population in balance with agriculture and traffic, and also provides good hunting opportunities. For this to be possible, Understandings of several aspects of the ecology of wild boar is needed. The sows in this study had an average homerange of 707 hectares during summer, and 659 hectares in winter.

The aim of this paper is to study whether the way directioners (One Direction fans) on Twitter express self-Understandings denote fandom as a sacred experience. For this purpose, the data was analyzed in relation to Nicholas Jay Demerath III typology of the varieties of the sacred experience. The method used was discursive psychology. The data was analyzed by how the fans draw the line between ?us? and ?them?, when expressing their self-Understandings and their position in relation to others. Five themes were identified: (1) positioning and demarcation for membership, (2) group identity, (3) conflict, (4) the norms for behavior, opinions and language and (5) the group?s role and function.

The purpose of this study is to describe the three most significant pedagogical ideas and their impact on the national curriculum from the concept of communication. As the school is a social learning community this study looks at some teachers? perceptions and experiences of teaching with a communicative approach, and the obstacles they claim to meet. The educationist Kieran Egan argue that these three pedagogical ideas are incompatible and that a curriculum that compromises them is doomed to fail. He mean that a new coherent view on education is required and should be based on students? Understandings.

Place is on the one hand a commonsense everyday word with diversely connotative meanings, and on the other a contested concept with different interpretations across a broad range of academic disciplines and discourses. This thesis researches theories of place and their implications for the theory and design practice of landscape architecture. Responding to problems of insufficient theoretical grounding and inconsistent use of the concept of place within the discipline presently, it argues the need for a theory of place better articulated in relation to landscape architecture. It seeks to contribute to such theory formation by drawing on ideas from related disciplines ? tracing diverse Understandings of place beyond the commonsense meanings of the word and into the deeper reaches of place theory as tools to explain physical, social and spiritual aspects of the environment, and human relationships with it.

The purpose of this study is to understand how street-level bureaucrats, working with clients with mental illness, are implementing their statutory obligation of support for family carers who are caring for or supporting relatives with mental illness. The study are based on vignettes and qualitative interviews with social workers in three different municipalities in southern Sweden. The questions of this study are:? How do the social workers communicate their statutory obligation of support to family carers?? How do the social workers distinguish the family carers?? How do the social workers distinguish the family carers who are in need of support? Metod: Vignettes and qualitative interviews has been used as methods to gather empirical data.Theory: Theories of street-level bureaucracy has been used as theory in the analyses of the empirical material.Results: The result of this study concludes that the social workers, in lack of policy introduction, communicate their obligation to support family carers within their discretion. The result shows that the majority of the municipalities do not have formalized support for family carers supporting relatives with mental illness. The study also concludes that the social workers have different Understandings of which family carer who is a carer in need of support.

This Master?s thesis provides insights into adult women?s fictional reading within the conceptual phrase ?a good book?. Eight qualitative and semi-structured interviews were performed in order to examine the nature of response and perceived benefits. The collected data were analyzed by Louise M. Rosenblatt?s reception-oriented transactional theory of reading and the cognitive psychology-based model of reading developed within the joint Nordic project SKRIN.

Problem area of this Bachelor thesis is the mental illness of internationally adopted at the age of 16-26. Our study focuses on a compilation of previous results from positivistic researches in the first question formulation. In the second and third question formulations a narrative text analysis, through hermeneutically interpret risk and prevention factors, is carried out for the life of internationally adopted that can lead to mental health/illness and how they apprehend to be adoptees. The purpose is to get a comprehensive understanding at individual, group and society's view of their lives. Further intention is to interpret the material for possible approach angles on further research.

Dementia may cause difficulties in communicating. People suffering from dementia are therefore often described as being unable to take part in meaningful conversation. The responsibility to create understanding in a conversation is shared by all participants. By means of different strategies, participants in conversation can construct understanding through collaboration. How these strategies are utilized in conversation where one or more of the participants suffer from dementia is relatively unknown.

Dementia may cause difficulties in communicating. People suffering from dementia are therefore often described as being unable to take part in meaningful conversation. The responsibility to create understanding in a conversation is shared by all participants. By means of different strategies, participants in conversation can construct understanding through collaboration. How these strategies are utilized in conversation where one or more of the participants suffer from dementia is relatively unknown.

During 2009-2010 Sweden participated in an international military operation whose intention, according to the Swedish news media, was to fight Somali pirates. The purpose of this thesis is to study various decisions and documents behind the Swedish efforts, both military and foreign aid, regarding the matter of Somali pirates during the years 2009-2010 and analyze the results using an interpretation of the security-development-nexus-theory. The method used is text analysis based on the hermeneutic idea of understanding and interpretation.The thesis studies the international resolutions and national decisions that lead to the military operations in the Gulf of Aden and also the international strategies and national approaches regarding Sweden's assistance in the development of Somalia. The theoretical section contains an interpretation of the vast security-development-nexus-theory. The concepts of security and development are first presented separately and then collectively in terms of military security, societal security, economic security, regime security and human security.